Corporate Culture

Posted on by SQLAndy

One of the things I enjoy about work is seeing the various cultures that evolve. Some companies are rigid, some are fun, some very loosely organized, etc. It’s almost magic how it happens, and it’s rarely all done on purpose. Each manager has a style, each employee has a work rhythm, and they get combined in interesting ways. Sometimes functional, sometimes not!

I like to look for the things that go beyond a single manager, things that are likely to live on if they get promoted or move to another company. For example, a current client has a thing where every Friday an IT manager breaks in doughnuts. The managers rotate the job, and then it’s 10 minutes of sugar treats in the break room on Friday morning. Every once in a while a manager forgets and then the other managers cheerfully chastise them, and then someone gets deputized to go get the doughnuts. It’s a little thing, but it’s fun, and it gets people in the room for a few minutes that might otherwise not see each other during the week.

I’m looking for other examples of interesting patterns, preferably positive ones. Is there something you’ve seen that spanned departments or teams that added richness to the culture. Something you smile about now, or tell people about with pride?

5 thoughts on “Corporate Culture”

  1. I have a whole host of things we do at my company… Paper airplane contest (the person whose plane flies the farthest gets a cash prize), dodgeball in the middle of the day, rib cook-off in the summer, Welcome to Work day which just occurs randomly (the C-levels pick up people from their cars in golf cars and drive them to the door, breakfast is available to everyone), etc. Let me know if you want more 🙂

    Erin

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  2. Ooh I love hearing about others’ corporate colors. We have
    a) nap room
    b) foozball tournaments
    c) hackathons
    d) weekly lunch and dessert crews
    e) soccer in the warmer months
    f) retreats
    g) book club (non-technical)
    Makes the office a very enjoyable place, I must say!

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  4. We do a Halloween contest every year where I work now. Costumes, pumpkin seed spitting, pumpkin carving. When I worked in Madison, Wisconsin one of people that worked there would bring in donuts any day that it snowed.

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  5. How many of those go across teams/departments? Any ideas why they work? Or examples of things that did not work?

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